Monday, October 10, 2016

This has been a September to remember – for a second
time in less than twelve months we had a potential buyer of our lovely Niwot
home bail on us right at the eleventh hour just as they were about to hand over
a check. Earlier this year we had almost crossed the finish line, only for a
last minute hitch surfacing, but the common thread on both occasions was a
little last minute buyer’s difficulty finding the money. On the bright side, on
both occasions it has led us to revisit and prioritize a couple of task we had
simply put off for too long so yes, our home has a light and airy feeling once
again that, of itself, is making up for a little of the letdown that followed these missteps.

For all of September we had spent the time in our Niwot home having elected not
to travel far from our home. This isn’t usual for us at this time of year –
yes, we did miss the final of the Indy Races that was held once again at
Sonoma. Readers of this blog will recall that at this time last year, we were
track side in the RV enjoying the hospitality of those very close to Herta
Motorsports – team owner Bryan Herta being the son-in-law of our good friends
and frequent track compatriots, Brian and Jan Kenney. If you missed the post
back then you may want to revisit Moving
on and yet, no lessening in our desire to be mobile!

It wasn’t just a case of being at home with little to do; passing time with
friends which, of course, we still did manage to host a number of afternoon martini-hour
receptions. It was more a case of thoroughly cleaning house. The word came that
the purchase proposal was the real deal and that in all likelihood, we would
have to be out of our home by October 1st so it was a room-by-room
attack and I will spare you the details. However, shredding what turned out to
be over a thousand pounds of documents, together with twenty plus trips to
Goodwill, saw us doing what we should have done a long time ago. Having moved
into our Niwot home a good year before the construction (and finishing touches)
had been completed, we found that we still hadn’t unpacked many of the boxes we
had brought from California! Ahhh, but it is the fall, so as we went about our
work, we still had plenty of time to enjoy the colors!

Among the more mundane tasks was pulling over 1200 DVDs
from the racks and sorting them prior to packing. Should have done this a long
time ago as we found more than one duplicate DVD lying on the storage racks.
Even worse? A good quarter of the DVDs hadn’t even been watched with many still
in their cellophane wrappers. Another surprise find was a box containing all of
the individual component controllers – we still aren’t confident that we found
them all– but looking further ahead, should we eventually move out of our Niwot
home then whatever comes next, we will be
definitely looking for a simpler solution. An Apple iPhone app, perhaps?

Boxing books, CDs, DVDs, records – yes, we still have a collection of vinyl LPs although they are mostly Margo’s as in a burst of uncontrolled, and somewhat not well thought-through impulse, when leaving California back in the mid-1990s, I donated my entire vinyl collection to Goodwill. Several hundred of them – probably worth a fortune by all counts - but not something that Margo and I plan on replacing any time soon. But technology moves on and yet, sentimentality still tugs at our hearts so imagine my surprise walking into the local Crate and Barrel household goods store here in Boulder to see them selling turntables as they played vinyl records from the 1960s.

Even
as technology has moved on, there is a lesson in all of this. Scurrying around
the house, checking on whether an item was worth saving or not, the whole process
proved very therapeutic, and the surprising thing was that very little of the
modern accoutrements we had collected made the cut – as we set aside what we
both really wanted to keep it was mostly older items that had very little to do
with technology.

Paintings, glass works of art, the occasional book (but not
many as it turned out), a few items we had picked up on our travels that meant
something to us but for the most part, only a fraction of the stuff we had
accumulated. We have a box of cameras both SLR and Digital and we really don’t
know what to do with them even as, at the time, they represented a considerable
investment on our part but then again, we are in technology and we know the
true value of an antique computer. Zero!

In last month’s post I made reference to Margo’s Yamaha
V Star 1100 cruiser – well, after spending several weeks at the bike shop, it’s
now back in the garage and it’s in great shape. Although a 2003 model
motorcycle, it’s always been garaged and with a little over 10,000 miles on the
odometer, it’s still very much a great bike to ride and I have managed to go on
several rides already. Margo has elected to come with me on each occasion I
went for a ride, in her car naturally, but knowing she has been just a short distance
behind me was nice to know.

The Yamaha is a lot lighter than the Honda VTX1800 I had been riding up until a short time ago when we traded it for Margo’s Mini Cooper S Roadster, so seeing Margo following closely behind in the Mini kind of felt like the spirit of her motorcycle lived on – yes, we were “riding” together once more. For those who aren’t familiar with this Yamaha model it is a “Softail,” very much like a Harley Davidson, but only three quarter size. And yes, like the more treasured Harleys, this Yamaha is also features carburetors but that’s another story entirely as this last service also included a complete carburetor rebuild. Ouch!

Sitting in the garage alongside the Corvette, even
though it was a Yamaha, there is something timeless about a Softail tucked up
alongside of the ‘Vette – it’s all part of the American dream. It’s how we
respond to the call of the open road. It’s how we interact with our
environment. Whether lazily cruising down a byway or attacking a couple of
favorite switchbacks it doesn’t really matter the vehicle chosen but motorcycle
or sports car, it just seems the right thing to do when you find yourself
thinking once again of visiting a favorite location. And at this time of year,
with fall temperatures prevailing, finding time to revisit favorite roads seems
to be just the right thing to do!

One
of the more intriguing sights we came across recently in our travels was the
construction of a new microbrewery / bar simply called The Barrel out of used
containers. Setting them up side by side but with a slight offset, cutting out
one side of one of the containers and installing waist high counters, and then
clearly, adding a few stools to sit on, introduces a new way to embrace
“industry standards.” When so many discussions today among those working with
technology center on embracing industry standards (to reduce costs) few would
have imagined that this would carry over into structures such as neighborhood
bars but it now seems to be happening. We will just have to make a return visit
in the Spring to check out the brews and see what else is on hand for the weary
traveler who stops by for refreshments.

Earlier in this post I recalled how last year we were supporting Bryan Herta and team Herta Motorsports even as I may have forgot to mention that for the second time in only a couple of years, Herta Motorsports in partnership with Andretti Racing, won the Indy 500. It was a masterful if not true genius fuel management strategy that led to their driver, Rossi, taking the checkered flag for 2016. Being on the perimeter of this family and having enjoyed brief conversations with Bryan Herta it wasn’t all that long ago that we were all sitting at a restaurant table with Bryan’s son, Colton. This was back in 2012 when Colton was racing Karts and if you missed that first meeting with the family, check out the post of November 30, 2012, It was an ill wind ...

Colton has matured considerably since I snapped that photo of him walking to
his Kart on the eve of a very important and final event of the year. Fast
forward to 2016 and Colton is enjoying his second year in Europe racing formula
cars on a full time basis. How’s he doing? After competing in the
UK-based MSA Formula series last year, as the youngest
driver and the only American on the grid, he enjoyed a bumper second half of
the series winning half the races – four out of eight as I recall - to finish
the series third overall. On British tracks he had never seen before even as
all those around him had grown up on them. This year he stepped up to the even
more competitive EuroFormula Open championship
which would take him deep into Europe and onto the best F1 tracks going
including Spa, Monza, and The Red Bull Ring (in Austria) .

So after a steep learning curve to begin with where the
results were mixed and where he lay in ninth place overall as they went into
the summer break – these cars have some serious aero packages providing levels
of downforce that are new for Colton – this month he achieved a remarkable
feat. He won both of the races at the Red Bull Ring. This was not missed by the
prestigious motor racing magazine, Racer (where the photo above came from) who
reported how, “The 16-year-old son of IndyCar's Bryan Herta avoided a chaotic
start in his Carlin entry to take the win by 12.2 seconds ahead of Ferdinand
Habsburg and Tatiana Calderon (RP Motorsport) in Race 1, then backed that up by
dominating the second race of the weekend from pole position”. In so doing, “He
is the first driver to pull off such a weekend sweep yet this year.” As a team,
they ended up winning a bag load of trophies thanks to Colton.

Recognize the name of fellow competitor, Ferdinand
Habsburg? Pictured above, to the left of Colton on the podium, having taken
second place? Yes, that’s right – the heir to the Austrian throne and a direct
descendent from the famous Habsburgs. I can imagine what would happen in the UK
if young George said he wanted to go racing … But seriously, after just a few
races, Colton has now risen to third place overall and is looking good to
continue his climb up the Formula ranks. Our best of wishes go out to Colton for
the remainder of the year as they also do to his extended family. And yes, “We
all want to be Colton!”

September has come to an end. Margo and I are empting the boxes we packed fully
expecting to have moved out of our home of seventeen years. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t to be, but then, on the bright side, we are moving back into a very
clean house – yes, we had all the windows washed as more or less a “welcome
gift” – not to mention every wardrobe and cupboard had been emptied. It’s
almost as if we have been given a second chance to get ourselves organized.
Fortunately, there’s still a grill working in the backyard and there was a
steak in the refrigerator and yes, just as importantly, martinis could still be
shaken so perhaps the best color of fall is that of a red steak gradually
turning brown over a gentle flame!